27 September 2009

During the summer, upon seeing Gingerfeck and I using Latitude to work out that we were sat opposite each other in a beer garden, she decided it was time to upgrade her own phone into something a bit more technical.

I use a smartphone running Windows mobile, as I needed to be able to synchronise it with my Outlook diary at work. Due to added geekery, it will now also talk to Google Calender, which talks to my Outlook at home, which in turn talks to my ipod, so entering an appointment on any one of them will result in it turning up everywhere, so no excuses for missing anything (other than birthdays which have not been put in any of them - oops - sorry Mum).

Mrsslippy doesn't need to sync with Outlook, as she keeps her electronic diary in Google, so didn't need a Windows phone.

Blackberrys are a bit too business function led, so not one of those.

iPhones may look cool, and have loads of 'apps', but (unless you, dear reader, own one) can make you look like a bit of a pretentious cock, which Mrsslippy is not.

Operates on Google Android, so integrates seamlessly with her email, diary, maps etc..

Has thousands of 'apps' available from Android Market, many of which are free.

It's not an iPhone

After an initial period of frustration at not instantly knowing how to use all the functions on it despite not having even read the quickstart guide, let alone the full manual, she seems to growing increasingly fond of the ability to play Bejewelled, check Twitter and Facebook, and see where she is on a map. She can even use it for Spotify - millions of songs instantly streamed to your phone....

Her greatest application find recently is My Tracks. Not only does this GPS software track your current position along the same lines as Latitude, it also stores all the data which can then be uploaded to Google.

So last week while we were wandering around Cornwall, Mrsslippys phone was following our every move, and analysing it....

The walk to St Michaels took 7 hours 4 mins, but we were only moving for 5 hours 9 mins, having stopped to have sandwiches on the way, and a cream tea in Marazion.

Our average moving speed was 2.3 mph, and despite the highest point we reached being only 194m, due to the ups and downs of the route we ascended a total of 611m, covering a distance of 11.9 miles.

After waiting an hour for the tide to go out so we could walk along the normally submerged pathway back off the mount, we carried on the 3.5 miles to Penzance at an average speed of 2.5 mph, where upon we collapsed into the first pub we could find to fill up on beer and dinner.

We got a taxi back to the cottage.

You can see the route we took here and here, with all the statistical details popping up if you click on the red marker at the ends of the routes. You can even view it in Google Earth, and tilt the camera angle to see all the uppy and downy bits. It really is quite bizarre looking at the red line it's traced and remembering stopping to sit on rocks that you can see on a satellite photo.

Mrsslippy is now using it all the time, and can easily tell you the distance and average speed of anywhere we go, by foot, car or train.

And I can tell you with out the assistance of any electronic assistance that Mrsslippy walked a grand total of 50 meters yesterday. Five times to the kitchen, and four to the bathroom. Bloody geeks and gadgets eh?